Amelia Halgren > Recent Status Updates

His only solution is to cut down a tree because he doesn’t know that the car is capable of going in reverse… ironic that on foot he only wants to walk backwards but in the car he only knows how to go forward.

“He has come to see in the priest a man perfected by his suffering, a man to be imitated. Because to suffer and do nothing to be nothing. But to suffer and do something is to become someone, and that is what he is doing. He is doing something. He must strike on to the mountains of Portugal and fulfill his quest.”

“I’m searching for a lost treasure… The thing in question it’s, well, I can’t tell you what it is but it’s an impressive object… With this object I’ll give God His comeuppance for what he did to the ones I love!”

…When did this become Tomas’ purpose? Doesn’t he still believe that the object is likely a crucifix?

He looks backwards constantly, both literally and figuratively …and so he cannot easily use the new technology of the forward moving automobile…?

“…in walking backwards —his back to the world, his back to God— he is not grieving, he is objecting. Because when everything cherished by you in life has been taken away, what else is there to do but object?”

“In today’s world… the weak are used as stepping stones and those in need are taken advantage of… nobody stands up and calls for it to stop.”

This implication that things were better in the past is a little rich… It wasn’t exactly common to do this a couple generations back either and there are plenty of Koreans and Chinese that suffered at the hands of Japanese imperialism.

Why gatekeep how people enjoy books? There are many books that we only have today because people collected and preserved them for future generations.

This is a bit melodramatic…

The author has addressed how amnesia usually works and that these symptoms are abnormal so it’s possible to suspend disbelief. Even the literary style of the journal kept by Christine is explained by her major in English… But it’s still weird. She describes the glow of a lamp, the sounds her husband makes downstairs, that the doc pushed the journal across the table, It’s not how I personally journal.

Erudite bordering on pretentious… educational but more complex than is ideal for casual audiobook listening. I’m not sure if I’ll continue even though I do recognize that this is some spectacularly good writing.

Hearing the longing for their homeland from these immigrant families and the sense that their kids would “do as well in Pakistan as they would do here. Better even, less confused.” …I’m reminded of one of my earliest friendships with a girl named Azia and her sister Malia. They were refugees from Afghanistan and when things calmed down they returned, in spite of the Taliban. I wonder what happened to them.

“…I never wanted to stop loving [my son] I just wanted him to be normal. I guess it took me a long time to get it… Get that what’s normal ain’t up to me.”

“You don’t get it man. Things are better these days if you’re gay but they ain’t great. You get outed and you might find out you suddenly have violated your company’s rules on parking privileges. So they fire you.”

“I’m jokin’. Everybody is too damn sensitive these days.”
“We ain’t sensitive. Back in the day nobody could say shit or one of your uncles would’ve tried to hang him from a tree. Now I can tell you to kiss my entire ass.”
Buddy Lee scratched at his chin as he considered Buddy’s abbreviated history lesson.

“Human beings were wired to get used to just about anything. That didn’t make you hard. It made you indoctrinated.”

…Interestingly, I just read a very similar sentiment in Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Franklin.

“You both think our sexuality is something that has to be explained. It isn’t. It’s just who we are.”

“I’m not racist or nothin’ just don’t know a lot of black people,” Buddy Lee stammered.
“I never said you was. You just another white boy that don’t have to worry about people like me and the shit we go through,” Ike said.

I don’t think this is for me.

This is a decent story but in listening while multitasking I lost the thread and I’m not attached enough to continue.

I fell asleep listening to this and I’m not sure when. I’d love to finish this another time!

When did “trembling hands” become a common description to indicate run of the mill tension…? I get it, trying to show rather than tell… but I’ve read this same description several times recently and I keep contemplating how the only time my hands ever trembled from tension was when I was seriously jacked up on adrenaline.

Omg this book is stressing me out but I want to know how it ends!!!

I’m really uncomfortable with the amount of deception…

This is well written and absorbing but I just can’t handle all the casual cruelty, deprivation and torture described as part of everyday life in Manchukuo. I’m finding I also need more familiarity with this time and place to get a good grasp on context.

I’m starting to wonder if Thalia is so open to this relationship because she sees the benefit of having a likable parental figure for her new role…

This seems like a great book that would be worth coming back to but at the moment I just want to be in another headspace.

I plan to come back to this but it’s not something that need to be read all at once and at present I’m struggling with the dark aspects of the content even while other insights are truly uplifting.

This is good and worth reading but it’s more grim than I’m ready for right now.

I lost my place in my audiobook… this is definitely good though it took me past the 15% mark to get engaged. But it’s pretty grim and I’m not sure it’s what o want to read right now.